Quote of the Day: Read rules first and have fun.

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Fraggle Rocker, Jan 17, 2008.

  1. Atopos Registered Member

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    I don't know if that sounds hilarious to you, but Berlusconi said a few days ago: "I am worried but optimist", (of course in Italian because doesn't speak any english). Now, if you are optimist, you shouldn't be worried, right?
     
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  3. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    An optimist does not have to be irrationally optimistic to the extent that he does not believe there are any problems.
     
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  5. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    Rehab Center motto:
    "Abandon dope, all ye who enter here"

    Dadaist Center motto:
    "Abandon trope, all ye who bend an ear"
     
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  7. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    "Catch a man a fish and you feed him for a day
    Teach him how to fish and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity."
    Karl Marx


    Or was it Karl Marx?
    If you look up this quotation on the internet you will find thousands of sites attributing it to Marx, but none which quote chapter and verse.
    They all say, "he wrote it somewhere", or "Marx said"

    Oddly, others argue that "Jesus said it" or "It's in the Bible".
    If people as divers as Marxists and Christians want to take the credit, there must be a lot of truth in it.
    But no-one ever gives any factual information.

    The jist of the saying is that if you sell a man a fish he only eats for a day, but if he knows how to fish he can feed himself.

    I agree with that too.
     
  8. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Sciforums Motto:
    Abandon Tripe all ye who enter here.
     
  9. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    3,674
    Hold the liver & onions?
     
  10. disease Banned Banned

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    657
    Traffic Control motto:
    "U bend in slope, all ye who tend to veer"
     
  11. Bricoleur Registered Member

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    98
    You can't have everything...where would you put it?

    George Carlin
     
  12. CatherineW Registered Senior Member

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    175
    That's CRAZY!
     
  13. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    It's because:
    • A buffalo is a bovine animal;
    • The word was adapted as a slang verb meaning "to confuse or intimidate";
    • And it was also taken as the name for a city in New York.
    So if you use alternate words and add some implied grammatical particles, you get:

    "New York bison, (whom) (other) New York bison deceive, (themselves) (deceive) (other) New York bison."

    In Danish, Swedish and Norwegian this can be done without any capital letters for cues, and without using slang words or proper names all derived from the same word. It relies on bar having three meanings: "tavern," "naked" and "carried"

    Bar barbarbarbarbar bar bar barbarbarbarbar.

    "Naked barbarian-bar barbarian carried naked barbarian-bar barbarian."

    It's a newspaper headline, with articles (a, the) omitted, and it relies on the ability of the other Germanic languages to build compound words more freely than we can in English. A barbarbarbarbar is a barbarian who hangs out in barbarian bars.
     
  14. disease Banned Banned

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    657
    Newton's lament:

    "As I looked thru a piece of glafs
    Light went all a-wavey, on my afs"
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2008
  15. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    23,198
    "Consumers are not consuming; Bankers are not lending; Investors are not investing; and Employers are not hiring. If that is not a Catastrophe, what is?"

    By directory of Span's central bank. (In Spanish of course, and perhaps I have re-order these four observations, as I read a few days ago and forgot to post.)
     
  16. noodler Banned Banned

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    751
    "If mathematics is a crime, I'm looking for clues."
     
  17. noodler Banned Banned

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    751
    "I cannot grok its fullness."

    --Vaughan Micheal Smith, Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
     
  18. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    * * * * MODERATOR'S CORRECTION * * * *

    His name was Valentine Michael Smith, an orphaned human raised by Martians. The book was published in 1961. The verb "to grok," meaning "to understand in ways not typical for human beings," gained some popularity among the "counterculture" of "the sixties," the misnamed twelve-year period that began with the first Beatles song and ended with the close of the Vietnam War.
     
  19. noodler Banned Banned

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    751
    Ah, yes of course. It must be that I have not grokked this. Or haven't read it for a while.
    ...

    "Dave, my mind is going, I can feel it.
    I can feel it..."


    HAL, from 2001 A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
     
  20. noodler Banned Banned

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    751
    "Mathematicians are just people who can't afford a decent hobby."

    --Anon
     

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